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PRINCIPLES AND MEASURES OF TRUE DEMOCRACY. 



THE ADDKESS 

OF THE SOUTHEM AND WESTERN 

LIBERTY COr^VENTION, 

HELD AT CINCINNATI, JUNE II, 1845, 
\ TO THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES ; 

ALSO, THE 

LETTER OF ELIHU BUEUITT TO THE CONVENTION. 



^ CINCINNATI ; 

PRINTED AT THE GAZETTE OFFICE. 
1845. 



O 



NOTICE. 

The Soiithe7^n and Weslern Liberty Convention, held at Cincinnati, on the 
11th and 12th June, 1845, was the most remarkable Anti-Slavery Body yet 
assembled in the United States. The call embraced all those who were 
resolved to act against Slavery by speech, by the pen, by the press, and 
by the ballot. It was not therefore exclusively a Convention of the Liberty 
party; and accordingly not a few were in attendance, who had not acted 
with that party. The whole number present as Delegates, was about two 
thousand — from the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Michigan; from 
the Territories of Wisconsin and Iowa; from Western Pennsylvania, and 
Western Virginia, and from Kentucky. Deputations were also present 
from Massachusetts, New York and Rhode Island; and the whole assembly, 
including spectators, varied during the sittings from two thousand five 
hundred to four thousand persons. James G. Birney, formerly of Alabama, 
but now of Michigan, presided, assisted by Messrs. S. C. Stevens, H. 
Mendenhall and S. S. Hardinge, of Indiana; Stephen E. Giffen, John 
Keep and Samuel Lewis, of Ohio; Edgar Needham and John G. Fee, of 
Kentucky; I. Codding, Owen Lovejof, James H. Dickey, of Illinois; A. L. 
Barber, of Wisconsin; Robert Hanna and Thomas Miller, of Pennsyl- 
vania, and David Craig, of Virginia, as Vice Presidents. The Secretaries 
of the Convention were Thomas Heaton, of Ohio, Russell Errett of Penn- 
sylvania, and M. R. Hull, of Indiana. The Committee which reported 
the Address, consisted of Messrs. Chase, of Ohio, Smith, of Pennslvan-ia, 
Cabell, of Indiana, Dickey, of Illinois, and Fee, of Kentucky. 

The proceedings of the Convention were marked by unanimity, vigor 
and decision. An Alabama paper, in anticipation of its assembling, spoke 
of the Convention as " the most important movement" of an Anti-Slavery 
character yet made, and declared that it "should look upon its proceedings 
as speaking more fully the real sentiments of A^orthern Anti-Slavery peo- 
ple" than any previous meeting of like character. The Address, which fol- 
lows, embodies the views of the Convention. It is commended to the can- 
did consideration of the people of the South, West, North and East. The 
movement of which it is a herald and a sign, cannot go back, but must go 
forward. It is the part of wisdom to know its nature, its progress, its ten- 
dency, and its end. The purpose of the Address is to reveal fully, ex- 
plicitly, without reserve, its whole character. It is desired, therefore, that 
each one into whose hands it may fall, will read it carefully; and, when 
read, hand it to a neighbor for perusal; and so let it go round! 

0^ Orders for this pamphlet to any extent toill be supplied at ^\,bO per 
hundred, and in proportion for a smaller quantity. Address (post paid) Thomas 
K. Smith, Cincinnati, Ohio. 



-^ US reflect what would have been the condition 
of tlie country Iiad the original policy of the 
■""^ nation been steadily pursued, and contrast what 
"^ would have been with what ia. 
^ At the time of the adoption of the Constitu- 
i tion, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, 
New Hampshire and Pennsylvania had become 
~ non-slaveholding States, By the ordinance of 
1787, provision had been made for the erection 
of five other non-slaveholding States. Tlie ad- 
mission of Vermont and the District of Maine, 
as separate States without slavery was also an- 
ticipated. There was no doubt that New-York 
and New Jersey would follow the example of 
Pennsylvania. Tlius it was supposed to be cer- 
tain that the Union would ultimately embrace 
at least fourteen free States, and that slavery 
would be excluded from all territory thereafter 
acquired by the nation, and from all States 
created out of such territory. 

This was the true understanding upon which 
the Constitution was adopted. It was neve 
imagined that new slave States were to be 
admitted; unless, perhaps, which seems jiroba- 
ble, it was contemplated to admit the West- 
ern Districts of Virginia and North Carolina, 
now known as Kentucky and Tennessee, as 
States, without any reference to the slavery 
already established in them. In no f.vcnt, to 
wiiicli our Fathers looked forward, could the 
number of slave States exceed eight, while it 
was almost certain that the number of free 
States would be at least fourteen. It was never 
supposed that slavery was to be a cherished in- 
terest of the country, or even a permanent in- 
stitution of any State. It was expected that 
all the States, stimulated by the examples be- 
fore them, and urged by their own avowed 
principles recorded in the Declaration, would, 
at no distant day, put an end to slavery with- 
in their respective limits. So strong was this 
expectation, that J.vmes Campbeij., in an ad- 
dress at Philadelphia, before the Society of the 
Cincinnati, in 1787, which was attended by the 
Constitution-Convention then in session, de 
clared, "the time is not far distant when our 
sister States, in imitation of our example, shall 
turn their vassals into freemen." And Jona- 
than Edwards predicted in 1791, that, "in fifty 
years from this time, it will be as disgraceful 
for a man to hold a negro slave, as to be guilt}' 
of common robbery or theft." 

It cannot be doubted that, had the original 
policy and original principles of the Govern- 
ment been adhered to, tbis expectation would 
have been realized. The example and influ- 
ence of tlie General Government would have 
been on the side of freedom. Slavery would 
have ceased in the District of Columbia immc- 
diatelv upon the establishment of the Govern- 
ment within its limits. Slavery would have 
disappeared from Louisiana and Florida upon 
the acquisition of those territories by the Uni 
ted States. No laws would have been enacted, 
no treaties made, no measures taken for the 
exte-nsion or maintenance of slavery. Amid 
the rejoicings of all the free, and the congrat- 
ulations of all friends of freedom, the last fet- 
ter would, ere now, have been stricken from 
the last slave, and the Principles and Institu 



"that when our ownjiberties were at stake, we 
warmly felt for the common rights of men: the 
danger being thought|to be passed which Ihreat- 
ened ourselves, we are daily growing more and 
more insensible to those riglits." 'I'his insen- 
sibility continued to increase, and prepared 
the way for the encroachments of the political 
are power, which originated in the tliree- 
fifths rule of the Constitution. This rule, de- 
signed perhaps as a censure upon slavery by 
denying to the slave States the full represent- 
ation to which their population would entitle 
them, has had a very diii'ercnt practical effect. 
It has virtually cslublished in the country an 
aristocracy of slaveholders. It has conferred 
on masters the right of representation for three- 
fifths of their slaves. The representation from 
the slave States in Congress, has always been 
from one-fifth to one-fourth greater than it 
would have been, were freemen only repre- 
sented. Under the first ajjijortionmcnt according 
to this rate, a district in a free State containing 
thirty thousand free inhabitants would have 
one representative. A district in a slave Slate, 
containing three thousand free persons and 
forty-five thousand slaves, would also liave one. 
In the first district a representative could be 
elected only by the majority of five thousand 
votes: in the other he would need only the 
majority of five hundred. Of course, the rep- 
resentation from slave States, elected by a 
much smaller constituency, and bound togeth- 
er by a common tic, would generally act in 
concert and always with special regard to the 
interests of masters whose representatives in 
fact they were. Every Aristocracy in the world 
has sustained itself by encroaciimeiit, and the 
Aristocracy of slave-holders in this country has 
not been an exception to the general truth. 
7'lie nation has always been divided into par- 
ties, and the slave-holders, by making the pro- 
tection and advancement of their peculiar in- 
terests the price of their political support, have 
generally succeeded in controlling all. This 
influence has greatly increased the insensibil- 
ity to human rights, of which Martin indig- 
nantly complained. It has upheld slavery in 
the District of Columbia and in the Territories 
in spite of the Constitution : it has added to 
the Union five slave States created out of na- 
tional Territories : it has usurped the control 
of our foreign negotiation, and domestic legis- 
lation : it has dictated the choice of the high 
officers of our Government at home, and of our 
national representatives abroad : it has filled 
every department of executive and judicial 
administration with its friends and satellites: 
it has detained in .slavery multitudes who are 
constitutionally entitled to their freedom : it 
has waged unrelenting war with the most sa- 
cred rights of the free, stifling the freedom of 
speech and of debate, setting at nought the 
right of petition, and denying in the slave 
States those immunities to the citizens of the 
free, which the Constitution guarantees: and, 
finally, it Jias dictated the acquisition of an im- 
mense foreign territor}', not for the Icudablo 
purpose of extending the blessings of freedom, 
but with the bad design of difiusing the curse 
of slavery, and thereby consolidating and per- 



tions of Liberty would have pervaded the en- actuating its own ascendancy. 



tire land 



Against this influence, against these infrac- 



How diflTerent — how sadly diflferont are tlie|tions of the Constitution, against these dcpar- 
facts of History! Luther Martjn complained Itures from the National policy originally adopt- 
at the time of the adoption of the Constitution, 'ed, against these violations of the National 



faith originally pledged, we solemnly protest. 
Nor do wc propose only to protest. We recog- 
nize the obligations which rest upon us as de- 
scendants of the Men of the Revolution, as in- 
Jieritors of the Institutions which they estab- 
lished, as partakers of the blessings which they 
so dearly purchased, to carry forward and per- 
fect their Work. We mean to do it, wisely and 
prudently, but with energy and decision. We 
have the example of our Fathers on our side. 
Wo have the Constitution of their adoption on 
our side. It is our duty and our purpose to 
rescue the Government from the control of the 
slaveliolders; to haruionizc its practical admin- 
istration with the provisions of the Constitu- 
tion, and to secure to all, without exception 
and without partiality, the rights which the 
Constitution guaranties. We believe that 
slaveholding in the United States is the source 
of numberless evils, moral, social and political; 
that it hinders social progress; that it embit- 
ters public and private intercourse; that it de- 
grades us as individuals, as States, and as a Na- 
tion; that it holds back our country from a 
splendid career of greatness and glory. We 
are, therefore, resolutely, inflexibly, at all times, 
and under all circumstances, hostile to its lon- 
ger continuance in our hmd. Wo believe that 
its removal can bo effected peacefully, consti- 
tutionally, without real injury to any, with the 
greatest benefit to all. 

We propose to eff'cet this by repealing 
all legislation, and discontinuing all action 
in favor of slaverj', at homo and abroad; by 
prohibiting the practice of slaveholding in 
all places of exclusive national jurisdiction, 
in the District of Columbia, in American ves- 
sels upon the seas, in forts, arsenals, navy 
yards; by forbidding the employment of slaves 
upon any public work; by adopting resolu- 
tions in Congress declaring that slaveholding 
in all States created out of national territories 
is unconstitutional, and recommending to the 
others the immediate adoption of measures fo 
its extinction within their respective limits; 
and by electing and appointing to public sta 
tion such men, and only such men as openly 
avow our principles, and will honestly carry 
out our measures. 

The constitutionality of this line of action can- 
not be successfully impeached. That it will ter 
minate,if steadily pursued, in the utter overthrow 
of slavery at no very distant day,nonc will doubt. 
We adopt it because we desire, through and by 
the Constitution, to attain the great ends which 
the Constitution itself proposes, the establish- 
ment of justice, and the security of liberty. — 
We insist not, here upon the opinions^of some, 
that no slaveholding in any State of the Union 
is compatible willi a true and just construction 
of the Constitution; nor upon the opinions of 
others, that the Declaration of Independence set- 
ting forth the creed of the nation, that all men are 
created equal and endowed by their Creator 
with an inalienable right of liberty, must be 
regarded as the Common I^aw of America, an- 
tecedent to and unimpaired by the Constitu- 
tion; nor need wc ai)i)cal to the doctrine that 
slaveholding is contrary to the Supreme Law of 
the Supreme Ruler, preceding and controlling 
all human law, and binding upon alllegislaturei? 
in the enactment of laws, and upon all courts 
in the administration of justice. Wcarc will- 
ing to take our stand upon propositions gencr- 



natural right and justice; that it can subsist 
nowhere without the sanction and aid of posi- 
tive legislation; that the Constitution expressly 
prohibits Congress from depriving any person of 
liberty without due process of law. From these 
propositions we deduce, by logical inference, 
the doctrines upon which we insist. We depre- 
cate all discord among the States; but do not 
dread discord so much as we do the subjugation 
of the States and the people to the yoke of the 
Slaveholding Oligarchy. We deprecate the 
dissolution of the Union, as a dreadful political 
calamity; but if any of the States shall prefer 
dissolution to submission to the Constitutional 
action of the people on the subject of slavery, 
we cannot purchase their alliance by the sacri- 
fice of inestimable rights and the abandonment 
of sacred duties. 

Such, fellow citizens, are our views, princi- 
ples, and objects. We inviteyour co-operation 
in the great work of delivering our beloved 
country from the evils of slavery. No question 
half so important as that of slavery, engages 
the attention of the American people. All oth- 
ers, in fact, dwindle into insignificance in com- 
parison with it. The question of slavery is, and 
until it shall be settled, must be, the paramount 
moral and political question of the day. We, 
at least, so regard it; and, so regarding it, must 
subordinate every other question to it. 

It follows as a necessary consequence, that 
we cannot yield our political support to any 
party which does not take our ground upon 
this question. 

What then is the position of the political par- 
ties of the country in relation to thissubject? — 
One of these parties professes to be guided by 
the most liberal principles. "Equal and e.vact 
justice to all men;" "equal rights for all men;" 
"inflexible opposition to oppression," are its 
favorite mottos. It claims to be the true 
friend of popular government, and assumes the 
name of democratic. Among its members are 
doubtless many who cherish its professions as 
sacred principles, and believe that the great 
cause of Freedom and Progress is to be served 
by promoting its ascendancy. But when we 
compare the maxims of the so-called democra- 
tic party with its acts, its hypocrisy is plainly 
revealed. Among its leading members we find 
the principal slaveholders, the Chiefs of the 
Oligarchy. It has never scrupled to sacrifice 
the rights of the free States or of the people to 
the demands of the Slave Power. Like Sir 
Pertinax McSycophant, its northern leaders be- 
lieve that the great secret of advancement lies 
in "bowing well." No servility seems too gross, 
no self-degradation too great, to bo submitted 
to. They think themselves well rewarded, if 
the unity of the Party can be preserved, and 
the spoils of victory secured. If, in the distri- 
bution of these spoils, they receive only the 
jackall's share, they content themselves with 
the reflection that little is better than nothing. 
They declaim loudly against all monopolies, all 
special privileges, all encroachments on person- 
al rights, all distinctions founded upon birth, 
and compensate themselves for these efforts of 
virtue by practising the vilest oppression upon 
all their countrymen in whose complexions the 
slightest trace of African derivation can be de- 
tected. 

Profoundly do we revere the maxims of True 
Democracy; they are identical with those of 



ftlly conceded:— that slaveholding iscontrary to True Christianity, in relation to the rights and 



duties of men as citizens. And our reverence! vantage, without sacriHcing consistency, self- 
for Democratic Principles is tlie precise mcas- respect, and mutual confidence. While we say 
ure ofour detestation of the policy of those wlioi this, wc are bound to add that were eitlier of 



are permitted to shape the action of the Demo 
cratic Party. Political concert with that par- 
ty under its present leadership, is, therefore, 
plainly impossible. Nordowc entertain the 
hope, which many, no doubt, honestly cherish, 
that the professed principles of the party will at 
length bring it right upon the question of sla- 
very. Its professed principles have been the 
same for.near half a century, and yet the sub- 
jection of the party to the slave power is, at 
-this moment, as complete as ever. There is no 
prospect of any change for the better, until 
those democrats whose hearts are really posses- 
sed by a generous love of liberty for all, and by 
an honest hatred of oppression, shall manfully 
assert their individual independence, and refuse 
their support to the panders of slavery. 

There is another party which boasts that it 
is conservative in its character. Its watch- 
words are "a tariff," "a banking system," "the 
Union as it is." Among its members, also, are 
many sincere opponents ofslavery ; and the party 
itself, seeking aid in the attainment of power, 
and anxious to carry its favorite measures and 
bound together by no such professed principles 
as secure the unity of the Democratic Party, 
often concedes much to their anti-slavery views. 
It is not unwilling, in those States and parts of 
States where anti-slavery sentiment prevails, to 
assume an anti-slavery attitude and claim to 
be an anti-slavery party. Like the Democratic 
party, however, the Whig party maintains 
alliances with the slaveholders. It proposes, in 
its national conventions, no action against sla- 
very. It has no anti-slavery article in its na- 
tional creed. Among its leaders and cham- 
pions in Congress and out of Congress, none 
are so honored and trusted as slaveholders in 
practice and in principle. Whatever the Whig 
party, therefore, concedes to anti-slavery must 
be reluctantly conceded. Its natural position 
is conservative. Its natural line of action is 
to maintain things as they are. Its natural 
bond of union is regard for interests rather 
than for rights. There are, doubtless, zealous 
opponents of slavery, who are also zealous 
Whigs; but they have not the general confi 
dence of their party; they are under the ban of 
the slaveholders; and in any practical anti 
slavery movement, as, for example, the repeal 
of the laws which sanction slaveholding in the 
District of Columbia, would meet the deter- 
mined opposition of a large and most influen 
tial section of the party, not because the people 
of the free States would be opposed to the mea- 
sure, but because it would be displeasing to the 
oligarchy and fatal to party unity. We are 
constrained to think, therefore, that all expec- 
tation of efficient anti-slavery action from the 
Whig party as now organized, will prove delu 
sive. Nor do we perceive any probability of a 
change in its organization, separating its anti 
slavery from its pro-slavery constituents, and 
leaving the former in possession of the name 
and influence of the party. With the Whig 
party, therefore, as at present organized, it is 
as impossible for us whose mottos are "Equal 
Rights and Fair Wages for all" and "the Union 
as it should be," to act in alliance and concert, 
as it is for us so to act with the so called Demo- 
cratic party. We cannot choose between these 
parties for the sake of any local or partial ad- 

B 



these parties to disappoint our expectations, 
and adopt into its national creed as its leading 
articles, the principles which wc regard as fun- 
damental, and enter upon a course of unfeigned 
and earnest action against the system of sla- 
very, we should not hesitate, regarding as we 
do, the question of slavery as the paramount 
question of our day and nation, to give to it 
our cordial' and vigorous support, until slavery 
should be no more. 

With what party, then, shall wc act? Or 
shall we act with none? Act, in some way, 
we must: for the possession of the right of suf- 
frage, the right of electing our own law makers 
and rulers, imposes upon us the corresponding 
duty of voting for men who will carry out 
the views which we deem of paramount impor- 
tance and obligation. Act together we must; 
lor upon the questions which we regard as tho 
most vital we are fully agreed We must act 
then; act together; and act against slavery and 
oppression. Acting thus, we necessarily act as 
a party; for what is a party, but a body of citi- 
zens, acting together politically, in good faith, 
upon common principles, for a common object? 
And if there be a party already in existence, 
animated by the same motives and aiming at 
the same results as ourselves, we must act with 
and in that party. 

That there is such a party, is well known. — 
It is the Liberty Party of the United States. 
Its principles, measures and objects we cordial- 
ly approve. It founds itself upon the great 
cardinal principle of true Democracy and of 
true Christianitjs the brotherhood of the Hu- 
man Family. It avows its purpose to wage 
implacable war against slaveholding as the di- 
rest form of oppression, and then against every 
other species of tyranny and inj ustice. Its views 
on the subject of slavery in this country are, 
in the main, the same as those which we have set 
forth in this address. Its members agree to re- 
gard the extinction of slavery as the most 
important end which can, at this time, be pro- 
posed to political action; and they agree to dif- 
fer as to other questions of minor importance, 
such as those of trade and currenc)'', believing 
that these can be satisfactorily disposed of, 
when the question of slavery shall be settled, 
and that, until then, they cannot be satisfac- 
toril}' disposed of at all. 

The rise of such a party as this was anticipated 
long before its actual organization, by the sin- 
gle-hearted and patriotic Charles Follen, a Ger- 
man by birth, but a true American by adop- 
tion and in spirit. "If there ever is to be in 
this country," he said in 1836, "a party that 
shall take its name and character, not from 
particular liberal measures or popular men, but 
from its uncompromising and consistent adhe- 
rence to Freedom — a truly liberal and thorough- 
ly republican party, it must direct its first de- 
cided effort against the grossest form, the most 
complete manifestation of oppression; and, ha- 
ving taken anti-slavery ground, it must carry 
out the principle of Liberty in all its conse- 
quences. It must support every measure con- 
ducive to the greatest possible individual and 
social, moral, intellectual, religious and politi- 
cal freedom, whether that measure be brought 
forward by inconsistent slaveholders or consist- 
ent freemen. It must embrace the whola 



10 



sphere of human action; watching and oppo- 
sing tlie sliglitest illiberal and anti-republican 
tendency, and concentrating its whole force 
and influence against slavery itself, in compar- 
ison with which every other species of tyranny 
is to]erable,and by which every other is strength- 
ened and justified,'' 

Thus wrote Charles Follen in 1836. It is 
impossible to express better the want which en- 
lightened lovers of liberty felt of a real Demo- 
cratic party in tiie country — Democratic not 
iri name only, but in deed and in truth. In 
this want, thus felt, the Liberty Party had its 
origin, and so long as this want remains other- 
wise unsatisfied, the Liberty party muit exist; 
not as a mere Abolition party, but as a truly 
Democratic party, which aims at the extinc- 
tion of slavery, because slaveholding is incon- 
sistent with Democratic principles; aims at 
it, not as an ultimate end, but as the most im- 
portant present object; as a great and necessa- 
ry step in the work of reform; as an illustrious 
era in the advancement of society, to be 
wrought out by its action and instrumentality. 
The Liberty party of lb45 is, in truth, the Lib- 
erty party of 1776 revived. It is more: It is 
the party of Advancement and Freedom, which 
has, in every age, and witli varying success, 
fougiit the battles of Human Liberty, against 
the party of False Conservatism and Slavery. 
And now, fellow-citizens, permit us to ask, 
whether you will not give to tliis party the aid 
of your votes, and of your counsels? Ita aims 
are lofty, and noble, and pacific; its means are 
simple and unobjectionable. Why should it 
not have 3'our co-operation? 

Are you already anti-slavery men? Let us 
ask, is it not far better to act "with those with 
whom you agree on the fundamental point of 
slavery, and swell the vote and augment the 
moral force of anti-slavery, rather than to act 
with those with whom you agree only on minor 
points; and thus, for the time, swell a vote and 
augment an influence which must be counted 
against the Liberty movement, in the vain hope 
that those with whom you thus act now, will, 
at some indefinite future period, act with you 
for the overthrow of slavery? Tliere are, per- 
haps, nearly equal numbers of you in each of 
the pro-slavery partics,hone.stly opposed to each 



J Are you men of the Free States? And have' 
you not suffered enougii of wrong, of insult, 
and of contumely from Ihe slaveholding Oli- 
garch}'? Have j'ou not been taxed enough for 
the support of slavery? Is it not enough that 
all the powers of tjie government are exerted for 
its maintenance, and that all the Departments 
of the Government are in the hands of the 
Slave Power? How long will you consent by 
your votes to maintain slavery at the scat of 
the National Government, in violation of the 
Constitution of your country, and thus, give 
your direct sanction to the whole dreadful sys- 
tem? How long will you consent to be repre- 
sented in the National Councils by men who 
will not dare to assert their own rights or yours 
in tlie presence of an arrogant aristocracy: and, 
in your State Legislatures, by men whose ut- 
most height of courage and manly daring, \\ hen 
your citizens are imprisoned, without allegation 
of crime, in slave States, and your agents, sent 
for their relief, are driven out; as you would 
scourge from your premises an intrusive cur, is 
to PROTEST and submit. Rouse up. Men of the 
Free States, for shame, if not for duty! Awake 
to a sense of your degraded position. Behold 
yotir president, a slaveholder; his cabinet com- 
posed of slaveholders or their abject instru- 
ments; the two houses of Congress submissive 
and servile; your representatives with for- 
eign nations most of them, slaveholders ;• 
your supreme administrators of justice, most 
of them slaveholders; your officers of the 
army and navy most of them slaveholders. — 
Observe the results. What numerous appoint- 
ments of pro-slavery citizens of slave, States to 
national employments! What careful exclu- 
sion of every man who holds the faith of JciFcr- 
."on and Wasiiiygton in respect to slavery, and 
believes with Madison "that it is wrong to 
admit in the Constitution the idea of property 
in man," from national offices of honor and 
trust! What assiduity in negotiations for the 
reclamation of slaves, cast, in the Providence 
of God, on foreign shores, and for the extension 
of the markets of cotton and rice and tobacco, 
aye, and of men! What zeal on the judicial 
bench in wresting the Constitution and the law 
to the purposes of slaveholders, by shielding 
kidnappers from merited punishment, and para- 



other on questions of trade, currency, and ex-jlyzing State legislation for the security of per 
tension of territory, but of one mind on thejsonal liberty! What readiness in legislation 
great question of slavery; and yet, you suffer 1 to serve the interests of the Oligarchy by un 



yourselves to be played off" against each other 
by parties which agree in nothing except hos- 
tility to the great measure of positive action 
against slavery, which seems to you and is of 
paramount importance? What can you gain 
by this course? What may you not gain by 
laying your minor difFerences on the altar of 
duty, and uniting as one man, in one party, 
against slavery? Then every vote would tell 
for freedom, and would encourage the friends 
of Liberty to fresh efforts. Now every vote, 
whether you intend it so or not, tells for .slave- 
ry, and operates as a discouragement and hin- 
drance to those who are contending for Equal 
Rights. Let us entreat you not to persevere in 
your suicidal,fratricidal course; but to renounce 
at once all pro slavery alliances, and join the 
friends of J,iberty. It' is not the question now 
whether a Liberty party shall be organized: it 
IS organized and in the field. The real question. 



constitutional provisions for the recovery of fu- 
gitive slaves and by laying heavy duties on 
slave-labor products, thereby compelling non- 
slaveholding laborers to support slaveholders in 
idleness and luxury! When shall these things 
have an end? ' How long shall servile endur- 
ance be protracted? It is for you, fellow-citi- 
zens, to determine. The shameful partiality 
to slaveholders and slavery which has so long- 
prevailed and now prevails m the administra- 
tion of the government will cease when you 
determine that it shall cease, and act accord- 
ingly. 

Arc you non-slaveholders of the slave States?" 
Let us ask you to consider what interest you 
have in the system of slaver}'. What benefits 
does it confer on you? What blessings does it 
jiromisc to your children? Vou constitute the 
vast majority of the population of the slave 
States. The ag<rregate votes of all the slave- 



and the only real question, is: Will you, so far i holders do not^cxceed one hundred and fifty 
as your votes and influence go, hasten or retard, thousand, while the votes of the non-slavchold- 
fhc day of its triumph? 



11 



-era will number at least six liundrcd thousand, 
supposing each adult male to possess a vole. — 
It is clear, therclorc, that the continuance of 
slavery depends upon your sutFragcs. We re- 
peat, what interest have you in supporting the 
system? 

Slavery diminishes your population and hin- 
ders your prosperity. Compare New York with 
Virginia, Ohio witii Kentuekj', Arkansas with 
]\Iichigan, Florida with Iowa. Need we say 
more? 

It prevents general education. It is not the 
interest of slaveholders tiiat poor non-slavoliold- 
ers should be educated. The census of 18 lU 
reveals the astounding facts that more than 
one-seventeenth of the white population in the 
slave States arc unable to read or write, while 
not a hundred and fiftieth part of the same 
class in the free are in the same condition, and 
that there are more than tvi-chc times as many 
scholars at public charge in tlic free States as 
in the slave States. 

It paralyzes your industry and enterprise. — 
The census of 1810 also disclosed the fact that 
the free States, with two millions and a quarter 
inhabitants more, and ninety eight millions acres 
less than the slave States, produce annually, in 
value, from Mines thirty-three millions dollars 
more; from the Forests, eight millions dollars 
more; from Fisheries, nine millions dollars 
more; from Agriculture, forty millions dollars 
more; from Manufactures, one hundred and fifty 
one millions dollars more. At the same time, 
the capital invested in commerce by the free 
States exceeds the capital similarly invested in 
the slave States by more than one hundred mil- 
lions of dollars; and the tonnage of the former 
exceeds the tonnage of the latter by more than 
a thousand millions tons! This enormous dis- 
])arity, which will strike attention the more for- 
cibly when it is considered that much of the 
capital employed in the slave States is owned in 
the free, can be ascribed to no cause except sla 
very. 

It degrades and dishonors labor. In what 
country did an Aristocracy ever care for the 
poor? When did slaveholders ever attempt to 
improve the condition of the free laborer. — ' 
"White negroes" is the contemptuous term by 
which Robert Wickliflc, of Kentucky, designa- 
ted the free laborers of his State. He saw no 
distinction between them and slaves, except 
that the former may be converted into voters. — 
Chancellor Harper, ol South Carolina, teaches 
that, "so far as the mere laborer has the pride, 
the knowledge or the aspiration of a freeman, 
he is unfitted for his situation." And he likens 
the laborer "to t!ie horse or the ox," to whom it 
Avould be ridiculous to attempt to impart "a 
cultivated understanding or fine feeling." Gov- 
ernor McDuffie, in a Message to the Legislature 
of South Carolina, went so far as to say that, 
"the inntilution of domestic slavery sujjcrcedes 
the necessity of an order of nobility, and the 
other appendages of an hereditary system of 
government." Of course the slaveholders arc 
the noble, and you, the non-slaveholders, are the 
ignoble, of this social system. 

Slavery corrupts the religion and destroys 
the morals of a community. We need not re- 
peat Jelicrson's strong testimony. In a message 
to the Legislature of Kentucky, some years 
since, the Governor said, "VVe long to see the 
day when the law will assert its majesty, and 
stop the wanton destruction of life which al- 



most daily occurs within the j urisdiction of tlua 
Commonwealth." And the Governor of Ala- 
bama, in a message to the Legislature of that 
State, said, "Why do we hear of stabbings and 
shootings, almost daily, in some part or other 
of our State." A Judge in New Orleans, in an 
address on the opening of his Court, observed, 
"Without some powerful and certain remedy 
our streets will become butcheries, overflowing 
with the blood of our citizens." These terrible 
pictures are drawn by home pencils. Can com- 
munities prosper when religion and morality 
furnish no stronger restraints on violence and 
passion? 

Slavery is a source of most deplorable weak- 
ness. What a panic is spread by the bare sug- 
gestion of a servile insurrection? And how 
completely are the slaveholding States at the 
mercy of any invading foe who will raise tlie 
standard of emancipation? In the Revolution- 
ary War, according to the Secret Journals of 
Congress, South Carolina was "unable to make 
any effectual efforts vvith militia, by reason of 
tiie great proportion of citizens necessary to re- 
main at home to prevent insurrection among 
the negroes, and to j)revent the desertion of 
them to the enemy." We need not say that if 
the danger of insurrection was then great, it 
would be, circumstances being similar, tenfold 
greater now. 

Slavery seeks to deprive non-slaveholdera of 
political power. In Virginia and South Caro- 
lina especially, has this policy been most stead- 
ily and successfully pursued. In South Caro- 
lina the political power of the State is lodged 
in the great slaveholding Districts by the Con- 
stitution, and to make assurance doubly sure, 
it is provided, in that instrument, that no per- 
son can be a member of the Legislature unless 
he owns five hundred acres of land and ten 
slaves, or an equivalent in additional land. The 
right of Voting for electors of President and 
Vice President is, in South Carolina, confined 
to Members of the Legislature; consequently, 
in that State no non-slaveholder can have a 
voice in the selection of the First and Second 
Officers of the Republic. In Virginia the slavo 
population is considered the basis of political 
power, and the preponderance of representation 
is given to those districts in which there is the 
largest slave p )pulation. The House of Rep- 
resentatives consists of one hundred and thirty 
four members, of whom fifty-six are chosen by 
the counties west of the Blue Ridge, and seven- 
ty-eight by the counties east. The Senate 
consists of thirty-two members, of whom thir- 
teen are assigned to the western, and nineteen 
to tiic eastern counties. Already the free 
white population west of the Blue Ridge ex- 
ceeds the same class east in number, but no 
change in the population can affect this distri- 
bution of political power, designed to secure 
and j)re3ervc the ascendency of the slavehold- 
ers, who chiefly reside east of the Ridge, so long 
as the Constitution remains unchanged. 

These, non-slaveholders of the slave States, 
arc the fruits of slavery. You surely can have 
no reason to love a system which entails such 
consequences. Yet jt lives by your suffer- 
ance. You have only to speak the word at tho 
ballot-box, and the system falls. Will you bo 
restrained from speaking that word by the con- 
sideration that the enslaved will be benefited 
as well as yourselves; or by the selfish expect- 
ation that you may yourselves become slave • 



12 



holders hereafter, and so be admitted into the 
ranks of the Aristocracy? If such considera- 
tions withhold you, we bid you beware lest you 
prepare a bitter retribution for yourselves, and 
find to your mortification and shame, that a 
patent of nobility, written in the tears and 
blood of the oppressed, is a sorry passport to 
the approbation of mankind. 

We would appeal, also, to slaveholders them- 
selves. We would enter at once within the 
lines of selfish ideas and mercenary motives, and 
appeal to your consciences and your hearts. — 
You know that the system of slaveholding is 
wrong. Whatever theologians may teach and 
cite scripture for, you know — all of you who 
claim freedom for yourselves and your children 
as a birthright precious beyond all price, and 
inalienable as life — that no person can rightful- 
ly hold another as a slave. Your courts in tlieir 
judicial decisions, and your books of common 
Jaw in their elementary lessons, rise far above 
the precepts of most of your religious teach- 
ers, and declare all slaveholding to be against 
natural right. You feel it to be so. God has 
so made the human heart, that, in spite of all 
theological sophistry and pretended scripture 
proofs, you cannot help feeling it to be so. — 
There is a law of sublimer origin, and more 
awful sanction than any human code, written 
in ineffaceable characters, upon every heart of 
man, which binds all to do unto others as they 
would that others should do unto them. And 
where is there one of all your number who 
would exchange conditions with the happiest 
of all your slaves? Produce the manl And 
until he is produced, let theological apologists 
for slaveholding keep silence. Most earnestly 
would we entreat you to listen to the voice oi 
conscience and obey the promptings of human- 
ity. We are not your enemies. We do not 
pretend to any superior virtue; or that we, be- 
ing in your circumstances, would be likely to 
act differently from you. But we are all fel 
low-citizens of the same great republic. We 
feel slaveholding to be a dreadful incubus up- 
on us, dishonoring us in the eyes of foreign na- 
tions; nullifying the force of our example of 
free institutions; holding us back from a glo- 
rious career of prosperity and renown; sowing 
broadcast the seeds of discord, division, disu- 
nion: and we are anxious for its extinction. — 
With Jefferson, we tremble for our country 
when we "remember that God is just, and that 
his justice cannot sleep forever." With Wash- 
ington we believe "that there is but one prop- 
er and effectual mode by which the extinction 
of slavery can be accomplished, and that is, by 
legislative authority; and this, so far as our 
suffrages will go, shall not be wanting." 

We would not invade the Constitution: but 
we would have the Constitution rightly con- 
strued and administered according to its true 
sense and spirit. We would not dictate the 
mode in which slavery shall bcattacked in par- 
ticular States; but we would have it removed 
ut once from all places under the exclusive ju- 
risdiction of the national government, and, 
also, have immediate measures taken, in accor- 
dance with constitutional rights and the prin- 
ciples of justice, for its removal from each State 
by State authority. In this work we ask your 
co-operation. Shall we ask in vain? Are you 
not convinced that the almost absolute monopo- 
ly of the offices and the patronage of the gov- 
ernment, and the almost exclusive control of 



its legislation and executive and judicial ad- 
ministration, by slaveholders, and for the pur- 
poses of slavery, is unjust to the non-slavehold- 
ers of the country? Can you blame us for say- 
ing that we will no longer sanction it? Are 
you not satisfied, to use the language of one 
of your own number, "that slavery is a cancer, 
a slow consuming cancer, a withering pesti- 
lence, an unmitigated curse." And can you 
wonder that we should be anxious, b}' all just, 
and honorable and constitutional means, to ef- 
fect its extinction in our respective States and 
to confine it to its constitutional limits? Are 
you not iully aware that the gross inconsisten- 
cy of slaveholding with our professed principles 
astonishes the world, and makes the Name of 
our Country a mock, and the Name of Liberty 
a byword? And can you regret that we should 
exert ourselves to the utmost to redeem cur 
glorious land and her institutions from just 
reproach, and, by illustrious acts of mercy and 
justice, place ourselves, once more, in the van 
of Human Progress and Advancement? 

Finally, we ask all true friends of Liberty, of 
Impartial, Universal Liberty, to be firm and stead- 
fast. The little handful of voters, who, in 1840, 
wearied of compromising expediency, and des- 
pairing of anti-slavery action by pro-slave- 
ry parties, raised anew the standard of the 
Declaration, and manfully resolved to vote 
right then and vote for Freedom, has already 
swelled to a Great Party, strong enough nu- 
merically to decide the issue of any national 
contest, and stronger far in the power of its 
pure and elevating principles. And if these 
principles be sound, which we doubt not, and if 
the question of slavery be, as we verily believe 
it is, the GREAT QUESTION of our day and nation, 
it is a libel upon the intelligence, the patriot- 
ism, and the virtue of the American people to 
say that there is no hope that a majority will 
not array themselves under our banner. Let 
it not be said that we are factious or impracti- 
cable. We adiiere to our views because we 
believe them to be sound, practicable and vi- 
tally important. We have already said that 
we are ready to prove our devotion to our prin- 
ciples by co-operatinii with either of the other 
two great American Parties, which will openly 
and honestly, in State and National Conven- 
tions, avow our doctrines and adopt our mea- 
sures, until slavery shall be overthrown. We 
do not indeed expect any such adoption and 
avowal by either of those parties, because we 
are well aware that they fear more, at present, 
from the loss of slavehokiing support than from 
the loss of anti-slavery co-operation. But we 
can be satisfied with nothing less, for we will 
compromise no longer; and, therefore, must of 
necessity, maintain our separate organization 
as the True Democratic Party of the country, 
and trust our cause to the patronage of the 
People and tiie blessing of God! 

Carry then. Friends of Freedom and Free 
Labor, your principles to the ballot box. Let 
no difiiculties discourage, no dangers daunt, 
no delays dishearten you. Your solemn vow 
that Slavery must perish is registered in Heav- 
en. Renew that vow! Think of the martyrs 
of Truth and Freedom; think of the millions 
of the Enslaved; think of the other millions of 
the oppressed and degraded Free: And renew 
that vow! Be not tempted from the path of 
political duty. Vote for no man, act with no 
party politically connected with the supporters 



13 

of Slavery. Vote for no man, act with no par- 1 Freedom breaks already the gloomy silence of 
ty unwilling to adopt and carry out the princi- Slavery in Kentucky, and its echoes arc heard 
pies which we have set forth in this address.^ throughout the land. A spirit of enquiry and 
To compromise for any partial or temporary of action is awakened ever}' wjiere. The assem- 
ad vantage is ruin to our cause. To act with 
any party or to vote for the candidates of any 
party which recognizes the friends and suppor- 
ters of slavery as members in lull standing, be- 
cause in particular places or under particular 
circumstances, it may make large professions 
of anti-slavery zeal, is to commit political sui- 
cide. Unswerving fidelity to our principles; 
unalterable determination to carry those prin- 
ciples to the ballot box at every election; in- 
flexible and unanimous support of those and 
only those who are true to those principles are 
the conditions of our ultimate triumph. Let 
these conditions be fulfilled: and our triumph 
is certain. The indications of its coming mul- 
tiply on every hand. The clarion trump of 



blage of the Convention, whose voice we utter, 
is itself an auspicious omen. Gathered from 
the North and the South, and the East and 
West, we here unite our counsels, and consoli- 
date our action. We arc resolved to go for- 
ward knowing that our cause is just trusting 
in God. We ask you to go forward with us: 
invoking His blessing who sent his Son to re- 
deem mankind. With Him are the issues of 
all events. He can and He will disappoint 
all the devices of oppression. He can, and 
we trust He will, make our instrumentality 
efficient for tjie redemption of our land from 
Slavery, and for the fulfilment of our Fathers' 
Fledge in behalf of Freedom, before Him and 
before the World. 



Elthu Burritt's Letter. 



Worcester, May 23d, 1845. 



of the children of a common Father, cither on 
earth or in heaven. The place, the motives 



My Dear Sir:— I am almost at and the members of your Convention, will all 
a Joss for language to express my sense of obli conspire to give it a moral might and majesty, 
gation to you, and the Committee in whose be- which will be felt over the Union, and carry a 
half you speak, for those terms of kindness and premonition of death to an institution which, 
confidence with which you invite me to be like a huge deep-rooted upas, has diffuspd its 
present at your great Convention in Cincinnati, 'subtle poison over the once greenest portion of 
on the nth of June. And it is with a profound this continent, until every thing that lives or 



sentiment of regret that I am compelled, by 
circumstances which I cannot bend to my wish, 
to forego a pleasure which I should have cher- 
ished during the remainder of my life, as one 
of the choicest souvenirs in the jewelry of my 
remembrance. It is with great difficulty thatjcent illustration of what it can do for human 



lies beneath its shade bears the hectic of the 
searing curse. 

No place in the Union could have been more 
appropriately selected than Cincinnati. Situa- 
ted on the heaven side of freedom, a magnifi- 



I can so arrange my labors as to permit me to 
be absent from Worcester a fortnight at a time. 
Still I have longed to see your great and pros- 
perous State; and when, a few weeks before I 
received your communication, a letter came 
from certain literary societies connected with 



nature and human society, well might it say to 
those who live in the pale and sickly wilderness 
of slavery, " Co?ne, and let us reason together." 
And it should quicken the pulse of great-heart- 
ed patriotism, that this friendly call has been 
greeted by a cordial response from the first 



the Oberlin Institute, inviting me to deliverlhome of the Anglo-Saxon race on this conti- 
their next annual address, in August, I accept- jnent— from unfortunate Virginia, the primeval 
ed the invitation, that I might associate with "' 



my visit some other object than that of mere 
curiosity. To fulfil this engagement will ex- 
haust all the time that I can force out of the 



Eden of Nature in America, now pining be- 
neath the breath of an institution which has 
blasted the foliage and the fruit of her tree of 
knowledge, and her tree of life; and which, if 



discharge of my labors at home, which would it has not banished her into the wilderness with- 
preclude the possibility of making two journieslout, has broufrht the wilderness into her para- 
to Ohio in one season. Although I cannot be;dise. Virginia! oldest patriarch in the ark of 
with you in person — or rather in bod}' — I shall Freedom which outrode tlie universal deluge of 
be present with every earnest sympathy of my 'despotism — among the first altars it erected in 
soul, with every attribute of my humanity that its heritage, was one for the sacrifice of hu- 
can pray and hope for man, and labor to lift up inanity and the immolation of iiuman liberty, 
my down-trodden brother the Slave— God's First to declare the inalienable rights of man, 
child, to a new life and the light of a new and, like the antediluvian patriarch, to preach 
heaven for his dovvnca.st alienated heart, a ■ the righteousness of freedom to the world, it 
heaven spanned with God's own handwriting was the first to become intoxicated with the 
in the fixed stars and every rainbow of hope, spirit of its domestic slavery, and, under its 
that his Ethiopian hue shall no longer impair'influence, to curse its posterity with an evil 
the dignity of his humanity or his title or ac-j which has operated with unspent and unsparing 
cess to all the privileges, progressand prospects, malignity upon young and old, rich and poor, 



14 



bond and free, through Ihoir successive ffcncra- 
tions. Virginia! still venerable in her niisfor- 
tuncs and grand in lior decadence, the devout 
and filial memories .which cluster about her an- 
cient virtues, like the pious sons of Noah, 
would approach her behind a mantle of charity 
which should hide from the subject and object 
of the sorrowful vision, the sight of her uncon- 
scious weakness and insensible prostration. 

And old V^irginia, the Virginia of the best 
days of our liistory, will be with you, repre- 
sented by a few choice spirits, who, with tlic 
sublime chivalry of moral heroism, theofl'spring 
and origin of b'^tter things in her condition, 
will go up to3'our communion, as the estranged 
and scattered children of Israel went up from 
their coasts to worship with their Jewish breth- 
ren in the temple at Jerusalem in tlie days of 
Hezekiah. And between that ancient jubilee 
and your Convention, I pray that there may be 
features of resemblance to which future gen- 
erations shall revert in grateful memory. If 
there ia one thing more than another, which 
would enhance my pleasure in being present 
on the occasion, it would be the privilege of 
meeting there those heroic spirits from Virginia. 
Above all the places on earth, I .should prefer 
to give tlicm the warm jiand of fraternal fel- 
lowship on the green banks of the Ohio. There, 
in view of the luxuriant iiclds and all the ver- 
dant life of your illiinited Eden, I would hold 
with them a brotherly communion on the gos- 
pel of nature and the great principles of hu- 
manity. While a beautiful world of exuberant 
fertility expanded to their view beneath tlie 
heaven-blessed labor of free hands, and cities 
and villages, buoyant with the vigor of youth- 
ful activity, vied with vegetation in rapidity of 
growth — I would remind them, with earnest 
tenderness, that the rain, the dew and the sun- 
light fell upon the fields of Virginia with the 
same^ichnesg of beneficence as upon those of 
Ohio: that nature had lavished upon the "Old 
Dominion" all that she could do for her choicest 
vineyard, and never withheld a gift that could 
make it the garden and glory of America. I 
would say to them, that if the recent wilder- 
ness of your state has been made to blossom as 
the rose, it is an evidence, bearing the signature 
of the Almighty, that no slave breathes its pure 
air or treads its free soil; that in it and on it all 
men are born fiif.e and equal, inheriting and 
enriching all those "inalienable rigiits" laid 
down in that Magna Charta of democracy which 
bears the broad seal of Virginia in the blood of 
her patriots. I would say to them, that all the 
difference, in condition and prospects, between 
Ohio and Virginia exi-ts in the dilTercncc of 
their devotion to that sublime dogma of demo 
cracy which stands at the head of the Dcclara 
tion of (Hir Independence; and tliat if the moth 
cr of the Union, among all the children slie has 
brought up, lias none left to guide her: if her 
walls are broken down and iier fields laid waste; 
if the music of macltinery never breaks the 
silence of her streams, and degraded labor has 
no songs in the night or the day; if her children 
fly from her bosom to regions whore honest toil 
is not tlic condition of the slave, it is because 
hIic has not been true to that great doctrine of 
iiutuan rights which she was the first to pro 
claim to mankind. 1 would give them the 
brotlAcrly hand of every liberly-loving son of 
toil in New England in pledge, that tiieir lia 
trod of slavery is tiic strongest expression of 



tlieir love for Virginia; that no malevolence 
"urks at the bottom of this great enterprise of 
freedom, in which the moral sentiment of the 
world is fast concentrating with an energy 
which must soon carry it to that issue which 
shall be greeted with acclamations of grace.' 
o-race unto it.' from every corner of the worlds 
Bretiiren, I would say, not an eflfort in this 
cause is inspired by aught else than the very 
soul of love to you and j'our children. The 
malevolence of wiiich we have been suspected, 
has this extent, no more: that Emancipation 
shall be Paradise Regained to Virginia, in all 
the compass of tiiat condition. 

It is one of the chiefest aims of our aspira- 
tions and efforts, not only to promote the 
emancipation of the slave, but to emancipate 
the "Old Dominion" from the old dominion of 
slavery ; to emancipate her instituti<ms of 
learning and religion from an influence that 
has poisoned their vitality; to emancipate the 
energies of her people from that crippling com- 
pression which has bent them to the ground; to 
emancipate her rivers and streams, whose cur- 
ents have been ice-bound in time of summer, 
because the mark of the beast was burnt and 
burning in the brow of labor pining on their 
banks; to emancipate her soil from that sallow 
disease w^ith which the sweat of the slave — 
falling on its face like aqua forlis — has devour- 
ed its capacity of production; to emancipate 
the treasures that lie locked and guarded by a 
luge Cerberus, in her mountains, valleys, and 
hill-sides; to emancipate nature itself from that 
iron prevention which has withheld her hand 
from dropping fatness upon every square acre 
of her territory. If this is malevolence, it is 
not the head, nor front, nor end of our ofl^end- 
ing. To say that, in rescuing Virginia from 
slavery, we would be content with making her 
what New England is, comes far short of our 
object and desire. We would make her 
what New England would be, with the soil, 
rivers, and streams, and natural resources 
of Virginia; which, with the indomitable ge- 
nius and energy of free labor, would enable 
her to manufacture for a continent and feed 
half of its population with the productions of 
her soil. Has she annnall}' expatriated thou- 
sands of her most vigorous sons, who could not 
toil where labor is degraded; we would re-peo- 
ple her borders with her exiles, who should re- 
turn with songs of joy on tiieir heads, as the 
ancient Jews to their beloved Canaan. Are 
lipr lands lying waste in artificial sterility, wc 
would resuscitate them to all their original 
fertility, and cut them up into farms clothed 
with exuberant verdure, and tilled by intelli- 
gent and virtuous freemen. "/s 07ic in twelve 
of her grown vp and goterning population una- 
ble to read or write,^^ we would dot the wjiole 
extent of her domain with school-houses, and 
supi)ly every hamlet with a library and the. 
means of gratuitous instruction. Is Virginia 
declining in political power, and fast losing 
her share of influence in the councils of the 
nation, we would give her far more than she 
ever possessed. We would double her repre- 
sentation in the representatives of freemen in 
our natimial Congr(^ss, who should be an honor 
to the country. With such an aim and end as 
this, in the inception, prosecution, and issue of 
this great work of philanthro[)y, sliall we talk 
of dissolving the Union? — that Union to which 
the SUCCCS.S of our ci'orts must give clcmcntK 



li 



0^ cohesion stronger than ten tliousand chains 
Df adamant?— that Union,. the concentrating 
nucleus of the hopes and interests of the future 
acres of humanity?— that Union to which the 
abolition of slavery would give a moral power 
that should lift up the race from its darkness 
and depression ? Dissolution of the Union;— 
What! cut in two the Mississippi, that jugular 
vein of tlic New World, and sever all the 
mio-hty arteries of the Union, and leave it to 
hleed to death in hostile segments, both wnth- 
ino- in the cauteries of mutual hatred! Nature 
itself would repel this profane disruption of a 
system to whose integrity every stream from 
the Sdbine to the St. Johns, is as necessary as 
iiny vein in the human body. Dissolve the 
Union! run the amputating knife through the 
child of all that the progressive ages of iiuman- 
ity have produced of freedom and virtue! and 
that because one of its members is infected 
with a cutaneous disease, which not a drop of 
blood less than that which now circulates in 
its whole system will remove ! Docs God or 
mankind require the sacrifice of this Union, 
this Isaac of the race, in which all nations 
should be blessed? And shall Americans lift 
the knife against it, not as an act of faith, but: 
of pusillanimous distrust in God? If nothing^ 
in the natural religion of patriotism could 
stay their suicidal arm; let every lover of his 
kind pray that the Almighty who arrested the 
patriarch's descending blow which was to sever 
his .son, may open the cloudy curtain of his 
pavilion, and interpose a cheaper victim of im- 
molation; or that might 

•' Come tliicli night, 
AiKl pall it ill the dunnest smoUe of hell, 
Thot its keen knife see not the wound it makes, 
Or heaven peep through the blanket of the dark, 
To cry Hold! Hold!" 
Dissolve the Union! dis'iolvc the whole mo- 
ral power we have and need to abolish slavery! 
May God grant that your Convention may ban- 
ish'that treacherous idea from every American 
heart. I trust that its Satanic lineaments will 
be detected and detested, should it surrepti- 
tiously enter your councils in the guise of an 
ancrelof light. No! you will not meet to dts- 
so/t-e, but to evohe the Union; to rcmvate it 
on the basis of the fathers of the Republic— 
That basis is broad and deep enough to unite 
the world. A better foundation cannot be laid 
by fallen men. You will meet as our fathers 



met, you will begin where they begun, and 
where their degenerate children Iclt olF to 
build. You will meet. To for.m a more perfect 
Union, establish justice, ciisure domestic tran- 
quility, provide for the common defence, j^rmnote 
the general welfare, and secure the blessings of 
liberty to ourselves and our posterity. This is 
the work you will tinite to resume. This is 
the foundation 4.0 -which you will descend to 
lay the first stone tliat has been laid therein 
since our "fathers fell asleep." As the nations 
round about Judea contributed materials to 
the erection of Solomon's Temple, so the 
world, with all its moral wcaltli, will^ be- 
come tributary to the structure of the Great 
American Temple of Liberty, founded on such 
a rock, and hail its completion as the asy- 
lum and admiration of the race. The Union! 
it is worth the world to the destiny of hu- 
nuni nature for the abolition of slavery; and 
the abolition of slavery will add the w^ealth 
and moral power of the w^orld to the Union. — 
May we speak of the value ol salvation, and 
the extent uf infinity, 'hen, for lack of a more 
reliflous term, let me express the hope and be- 
lief that your Convention will enhance the 
value, because it shall increase the strength and 
vitality of the Union. In that hope-inspired 
imagination with which I am wont to contem- 
plate the destiny of the American Republic, I 
have fancied that, in the lile-time of the pres- 
ent age, some heaven-kissing monument, the 
ofl^spring of the 11th of June, might be erected 
from the bed of the Ohio, opposite your city, as 
a kind of centri-mundanc column, saying to 
all things that shine and sing in heaven, and all 
that can carry the news on the wings of the 
wind; saying to all ages, to all men, to all bond- 
men o-roaning in the undiscovered habitations 
of cruelty: 

"I stand the plan's proud period; 

I pronounce the work accomplished," the 
warfare closed, the victory won, the triumph 

OF THE A.MERICAN UnION. 

Please, Sir, to accept for yourself, and ten- 
der to the other members of your com- 
mittee the profound sentiments of re- 
spect and sympathy with which I am 
theirs and yours for humanity, 

Eluiu Burritt. 

Samuel Lewis Esa. of Com., Sfc. 



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